Upholstered chair.



P. G. A. BODE.

'UPHOLSTERED CHAIR.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 1, 1909.

958,856. Patented May 17, 1910.

PHILIPP GUSTAV AUGUST BODE, OF HAMBURG, GERMANY.

UPI-IOLSTERED CHAIR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 17, 1910.

Application filed November 1, 1909. Serial No. 525,722.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PHILIPP GUsrAv AUGUST Bonn, doctor of medicine, a subject of the German Emperor, and resident of Hamburg, in the German Empire, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Upholstered Chairs, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to upholstered chairs and more particularly to invalidchairs, operating chairs and the like, and the object is to afford to the person or patient a more comfortable and easy seat than chairs known heretofore,

The present invalid chairs it is true allow of a certain adjustment of the back, or head rest or other parts in a whole, but no provision was made, to allow the parts of the body to snugly fit to the surfaces of such parts of the chair. The body generally con tacts only on very few points with the surfaces of the chair and therefore the position of the body is not a decided and firm one and it must be admitted that the deficient support is inconvenient and tiresome. These drawbacks are overcome by the present invention by arranging movable pads or disks in the upholstered parts of the chair, which pads are adapted to give way more or less by the pressure of the body, so as to allow the surface of the said parts of the chair (back, head-rest or the like) to snugly adjust itself to the shape of the body and when the surface has attained its proper shape, the pads are locked or held in their position so as to yield no further.

Each pad or disk supporting a certain part or section of the covering, is subjected to the pressure of a spring and provided with a shank or stem, that is arranged movably in guides and adapted to be arrested or locked in any desired position. Any suitable or convenient means may be employed to arrest or lock the said shanks but I prefer to use the construction shown in the annexed drawing, in which similar characters refer to similar parts.

Figure l is a side view of an invalid chair partly in section showing the means to adjust the surface of the upholstered part. Fig. 2 shows means to lock the pads or disks in elevation. Fig. 3 is a section drawn to the line 33 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a section of a pad with its adjusting and locking means drawn to a larger scale and Fig. 5 is a section drawn to the line 55 of Fig. 4.

The covering a of the upholstered part of the chair 6, shown in Figs. 1 and 3, is supported by a number of disks or pads 1 of any suitable shape, hereinafter called pads which may be provided at their back-side with shanks 2 guided in sockets 3 of the back wall or frame 4. Between the sockets and the pads 1 the shanks are surrounded by helical springs 5, which have the tendency to push the pads and therefore also the covering a forwardly, which may be made of oil-cloth, leather or any other fabric or material, so as to give the chair the appearance of any ordinary invalid-chair. At the back of the frame 4 a number of vertical rods 6 are connected on top to a common cross-bar 8 and provided with a number of longitudinal slots 7 through which the shanks 2 projected. The shanks are provided with teeth on one side as clearly shown in Fig. 4 and the rods 6 have sharp edges at the ends of their slots, thus being adapted to enter between the teeth of the shanks 2 and lock the pads 1 in the position they occupy, when the rods 6 are pushed or drawn downward. Springs 9 preferably attached to the lower ends of the rods 6 tend to draw the latter downward in locking position. The crossbar 8 has lugs 0, which are engaged by a finger d on a handle 12 pivotally attached by a pin 6 to a lug f of a back-plate 11 arranged at a short distance behind the frame 4. By turning the handle 12 downward the bar 8 and the rods 6 are ulled upward to release the shanks 2 of thelr locked position. The plate 11 may also be provided with sockets 10 to guide the ends of the shanks 2 when projecting through the slots 7 of the rods 6.

The operation is as follows: When a person is to be comfortably seated in the chair the handle 12 is turned downward to release the pads from their locked position thus enabling them to give way under the pressure of that part of the body which is opposite the pad, whereby the springs 5 are compressed in a similar way as the known springs in mattresses, spring-couches, sofas or other yielding upholstery work. lVhen the person has attained his comfortable seat in the chair the handle is turned upward either by the pressure of the hand or automatically by the tension of the springs 9,

to pull the rods downwardly and lock the pads in the position.

The pads may be covered with felt, horsehair or other cushioning material to provide for a soft surface, when the pads are locked in their position.

I claim:

1. An upholstered chair comprising a plurality of yielding independently movable pads, means to lock the pads and means to simultaneously operate the locking means.

2. An upholstered chair comprising a covering, a plurality of independently adjust able members adapted to automatically cause the covering to conform to the contour of a body laid thereon, means to lock the supports in their adjusted position, and means to simultaneously operate the locking means.

8. An upholstered chair comprising a number of pads, shanks on the pads adapted to move in guides, teeth on the shanks and a number of slotted movable rods adapted to catch between the teeth of the shanks to lock the pads in position.

4. An upholstered chair comprising a number of movable pads, a corresponding number of springs to elastically hold the pads in position, serrated shanks on the pads and a number of movable rods adapted to catch between the teeth of the serrated shanks to lock the pads in position.

5. An upholstered chair comprising a frame, a number of sockets on the frame, a number of pads and shanks on the pads guided by the sockets, helical springs surrounding the shanks, between the sockets and the pads, teeth on the shanks, and a number of slotted movable rods adapted to catch between the teeth of the rods to lock the pads in position.

PHILHP GUSTAV AUGUST BODE.

lVitnesses:

MAX KAEMPFF, ERNEST H. L. MUMMENHOFF. 

